Chapter
Eleven

Mounting the
hardware and Stringing

Before the harp can be strung, eyelets,
bridge pins and tuning pins need to be mounted on the harp and the neck and
pillar need to be bolted to the sound box.

Mounting the Eyelets
- First I test the eyelets to see how tighhtly they fit into the holes in the
soundboard.   Finish drips into
the holes making them smaller.
If it is difficult to push the pins into position, I may drill them out
with the appropriate sized bit.    I find it is easiest to
insert the eyelets when the sound box is laying flat on the workbench.

String tension puts significant
pressure on the eyelet, and if the wood surrounding them is not strong enough,
the eyelet tends to migrate upward creating a slot.  Sometimes the eyelet will split and/or
begin the tilt over or capsize.  If
the harp does not have an outer string rib, or if the string rib is made from
anything softer than rock maple, I dab glue into the eyelet holes with a
toothpick.   The glue will
significantly harden the wood fibers where they are likely to crush or deform
over time.  The object is not to
fill the hole, but to coat the sides with glue.   After all the holes have been
treated, the first hole is partly dry; I push the eyelet into place.  Excess glue pushed down by the eyelet
will block the hole, so I chase the string hole and eyelet with a thick harp
string.

Applying glue, inserting
the eyelet, then clearing the eyelet hole.
Scrap ends from steel wound strings work well for removing the glob of
glue that can plug the end of the eyelet.

Inserting the Bridge Pins
- I find it is easiest to insert the bridgge pins with the neck lying flat on
the workbench.  I place a towel
underneath to protect the finish.
As with the holes for the eyelets, the edges of the bridge pin hole may
have been coated with several layers of finish making the fit too tight.  If I can’t push the pins in by
hand I will re-drill them.
The final depth of the pins will vary depending on the types of levers
you will be using.  Most lever
manufacturers will provide recommendations or a stop block for setting the
depth of the pins.

<Insert a pic of bridge pins and
stop block>

Inserting the Tuning Pins
- As I am inserting the tuning pins, I claamp the pillar in my bench vice so the
neck is held vertically.   This
allows me to push them firmly into place.

When I first built harps, I was
frustrated in my efforts to get a nice row of tuning pins that settled to the
same depth.  No matter how carefully
I reamed the holes, I still seemed to have trouble getting the pins even.  There are several factors working
against the builder.  1). There are
differences in the density and hardness of the wood which will result in
unevenness as the pin is pressed into place, 2). There are significant
differences between pins, 3). As the pin is strung and the pin compresses the
wood around it, the pin will move about 3/16” inch farther in - depending
on the string tension and the hardness of the neck wood.

<Insert .jpg, tuning pins in place>

To get even pins, I push all of them
firmly into place (using a “one and a half grunt” push) with the
tuning wrench.  There will be some
that are too deep and others that are too shallow.  Swap the pins that are too high with the
pins that are too low.  I am
shooting to have each of the pins protruding about ½” on the
string side of the neck.

You can further refine the level of the
pins by using a hand reamer for the pins that are too high.   You may have one or two pins that
are too far IN the hole.   I
can bring these out a bit with paper sleeves, about 1¼ long and ¼
to ½ “wide.   I
wrap the sleeve around the narrow end of the pin and roll it with my fingers in
to a conical tube that follows the shape of the pin.  I slide the sleeve and pin into place,
making sure the paper catches while it is ¼” or so proud.  When the pin is pushed into place, the
paper sleeve moves with it, and the pin will ride farther out of the hole.   With a few tries, you will learn
to adjust the width of the paper slip to control the pin depth precisely.   This works on older harps with
worn holes and is entirely reversible (unlike bushings, glues or other
treatments poured into the tuning pin holes).

Stringing

I find this to be
one of the most rewarding phases of harp building.  After many hours of work, you will at
last give voice to the instrument.
One warning – As the strings are brought up to tension, the frame
will often creak, groan, even pop under the strain.   Don’t let this worry you
unnecessarily.  Just push on
ahead.

Some builders
emphasize a need to slowly bring the harp up to tension over a period of
days.   After trying it both
ways, I don’t think there are any advantages on the slow approach.  The harps that broke did so because of
material or design flaws.  If it
harp is going to break, I’d rather know now, not in two weeks.

I start at the
bass end of the harp and feed all of the wound strings through the eyelet
holes.   I pull them up and
wrap them around the tuning pin.  When
you tighten strings, you will want them to be slack so they wind around the
tuning pins 1-3 times before the string begins to stretch under tension.   The number of wraps around the
tuning pin is going to vary by the string’s gauge and material:

String Type

Pretension
wraps

Explanation

Lighter Gauge Nylon/gut Strings

2-3

Thin nylon or gut bends easily tends to slip right out of the
hole.  Some harpers use a lock
wrap, but I find the strings wont slip if I ensure there are three wraps around
the pin before the string is pulled taught.  The finer gauges are so thin that six
or seven wraps fit nicely on the tuning pin.

Heavy Gauge Nylon/gut (>.040),Wound Nylon Strings

0

Heavy gauge nylon kinks around the edge of the hole, and they
don’t need pretension wraps to hold them in place.   I pull the string up so it has
about 5 lbs of tension on it before I begin to twist the tuning pin.

On most harps these strings will stretch an inch and half before they
will hold pitch.   This means
they will wrap 4-5 times around the pin.
Because the string is thick you may run out of room on the pin for the
winds.

Plain Wire or wire core

1

Wire kinks on the edge of the hole and will hold itself in place
too.  A full wrap ensures that the
string will wind neatly towards the neck of the harp as the tuning pin is
rotated.

After I have the
wound strings on, I start to tie on the monofilament strings starting at the
treble end.  For strings finer than
.040”, I tie in a snippet of a heavy gauge Nylon or gut string to keep
the knot from pulling through the eyelet hole.

A –
One-and-a-half wraps for wound metal cores.   B - Too many heavy gauge string
wraps can overcome the tuning pin, pulling the bridge pin out of position.  C. Lock Wrap.  D – Fine gauge string.

Some harpers try
to tie the knot then insert the string through the back end of the soundboard
through the sound box.   There
is an easier way to do it.  Insert
the string through the soundboard into the sound box.  Pull the string through the sound hole
and tie the knot outside, then simply pull the knot into the sound box.

Tying the
eyelet end of the string – make two loops (1 and 2).  Lift and twist the second loop so it
surrounds the first loop.  Pull the
second loop tight.   On fine
gauge strings (smaller than .040), I tie in a ½” piece of heavy
gauge string using a simple overhand knot.   Other builders use beads, finish
nails or little brass bars to keep the small knots from pulling through the
eyelet.

Once all the
strings are tied into place and wrapped around the tuning pin, I bring them up
to tension.   I use an
inexpensive Korg CA-30 tuner ($25 or so), and start in the second octave.   The strings here are usually
tightened to about 2/3 of their breaking strength, so if you over-tighten the
first one (by trying to bring the pitch an octave to high), it will break.   This is a minor problem because
they are fairly cheap to replace.
For the first three tunings, I don’t spend any time getting the
note spot on.  I simply tune the
string so it is 20 or 30 cents sharp of its designed pitch then move onto the
next string.

At this point the
strings will make harp-like sounds, but their tone is usually rather discordant
and muddy.  Do not fret!   It will sound much better once the
strings hold pitch and can resonate sympathetically with each other.  It takes 4-5 tunings and time for the
strings to stretch and adjust to their tension.  After the third tuning, I let the harp
sit for a few hours.

After the fourth
tuning, the harp may hold pitch well enough to play a few lines.  I find the top and bottom octaves are
the trickiest to tune - a small displacement with the tuning key produces the
significant pitch change.  The wire
core strings in the bass don’t stretch much, nor do the short strings at
the top of the range.
The long nylon strings (3rd and 4th octave in many
designs) are stretchy and continue to drop in pitch even after they have been
tensioned a dozen times

By the fourth day
the harp will usually be able to hold its tuning for an entire practice
session.   The sound usually
continues to improve significantly over the first two or three weeks while the
harp’s sound board bellies out and the wooden frame bends and adjusts to
the string tension load.

I keep the harp
tuned morning and night for two weeks before mounting the levers.

Copyright ©
2007, Rick Kemper

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